James Varlack – Developing Engaging Instruction

Educational Duct Tape: An EdTech Integration Mindset

James Varlack says that “Engagement is developed.” So, in his interview, I asked him how he develops his engaging instruction. We discuss how James works toward each of the 3 types of student engagement--emotional, behavioral, and cognitive--in both analog and digital ways. We discuss Jamboard, Google Docs, Google Slides, Padlet, Whiteboard.chat, Whiteboard.fi, Microsoft Teams whiteboard, Google Arts & Culture.

Show notes also available at jakemiller.net/eduducttape-episode-53

• Today's Sponsor: Texthelp EquatIO - text.help/equatio-fft
• Soapbox Moment: "The One Who Keeps Score & Gives Permission to Not Take the Shot"
• • This quote was covered in this previous episode.
• Today’s Guest: James Varlack
• • James Varlack is a Digital Learning Specialist with McAllen Independent School District. He has worked in education for 10 years as a middle school math teacher and in campus technology. He and his wife Dawne moderate the #RGVEduChat and have 3 lovely children, Jayden, Zara, and Jordan.
  • Contact Info: Twitter: @jamesvarlack Email: [e-mail]
• 2 Truths & 1 Lie
• Educational Duct Tape Question: How can I develop engaging instruction?
• • Having the content down is not enough if it’s not engaging
  • Know your learning goals
  • Connect with learners
  • “Engagement is developed...means it has a starting place, grows and is nurtured, etc. Engagement is a work in progress”
  • Greeting students, connecting with students, using names are all big for engagement
  • Adding pop culture references into things like a “problem of the day”
  • Using those pop culture references as backgrounds in Google Slides
  • Learn about student interests with a survey (Google Forms, etc.) - “attack their interests”
  • Adding students names into problems
  • Hooks, reveals, challenges, brainteasers, puzzles, prodigygame.com
  • • encouraging kids to work together on riddles
    • Using Google Slides to create “reveal” activities
    • Google Arts & Culture Puzzle Party
    • • Other Google Arts & Culture "games" here
  • Ditch Summit - Esther Park - talked about interaction - student-to-student, student-to-teacher, student-to-class, teacher-to-teacher
  • Collaborative spaces - Jamboard, Google Docs, graphic organizers or drag-and-drop activities in Google Slides, Padlet, Whiteboard.chat, Whiteboard.fi, Microsoft Teams whiteboard
  • "Become the master of your tool… it’s only time to move on when you’ve mastered it." - David Carradine, Kung Fu
  • "Digital gorge"
  • Pear Deck
  • • Complete the squiggle
    • Shared teacher dashboard (allow co-teachers in)
  • Engaging Instruction = attracts and maintains attention, often means students are actively involved and a part of it (engaged in it)
  • Three different types of student engagement: emotional, behavioral, and cognitive - (Classcraft, Jenny Fulton)
• Celebration of the Adjacent Possible
• • Question - Adrienne Hudson
  • Edulastic
  • • Great Data!!!
    • standards-aligned questions
    • Standardized test prep
    • Edulastic is great for item-analysis, mastery-based grading or standards-based grading, identifying students who need support, creating student mastery profiles that can be useful in parent-teacher conferences, and even breaking down assessment data based on a variety of factors or subgroups.
    • ScratchPad
    • Question Types include: Drag-and-drop, Diagram-labeling, multiple select questions, sets of multiple choice questions in a table
    • questions with images, videos or audio
    • Math tools include: Coordinate plane, Line plots, Fractions, Math formatting, Fraction diagrams
    • Paid features: Rubrics, built-in read-aloud feature, Desmos calculator, Snapscore, Co-authoring & collaboration, Improved data
  • Poll Everywhere
  • • Flip phone origins!
    • Question types include: multiple choice, word cloud, Q&A with upvoting & downvoting, clickable images (click on a section of an image to indicate their answer), open ended, Surveys, short answer, select on a map
    • Launch from PowerPoint, Google Slides, Keynote, or Poll Everywhere’s site.
    • Students can respond within any mobile or web browser, using a mobile app or with text messaging.
    • Asynchronous option
    • Competitions - multiple-choice games are a lot like Kahoot or Quizizz
    • Paid - Show live results to participants, better reports
  • Mentimeter
  • • Free Version gives you Unlimited audience size, presentations, and content slides, but up to 2 question slides and up to 5 quiz slides per presentation. Presentations are public.
    • Interactive presentations can include videos and images, polls, data, opinions
    • great for with smart phones
    • Question Slides include: Word clouds, Multiple choice, Fun Quiz competitions, Q&A (with upvote), Ranking questions, Image options, Open-ended, Scales questions, 2 by 2 grid, 100 point questions
    • Mentimote remote is pretty cool
    • Can put Surveys and forms in presentation
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• • Apple Podcast Reviews
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